Hand Hygiene Compliance

Hand Hygiene Compliance

HCAI: A Global Concern

In 2002, 1.7 million patients in the United States were treated for healthcare-acquired infections, or HCAI.

Of those, 99,000 died as a result of their infection.

Each year, healthcare organizations in the U.S. alone spend approximately $6.5 billion caring for these patients because HCAI-related treatment is not reimbursable.

Every day, HCAI threatens patients, caregivers and the financial stability of our nation’s healthcare industry. Experts have identified compliant hand hygiene as the most effective means of reducing HCAI. But tracking hand-hygiene compliance among staff members has proven nearly impossible. Until now.

Empowering Compliance

VIZZIA’s hand-hygiene compliance solution not only tracks compliant and non-compliant events but also proactively alerts caregivers if they have failed to “wash in” or “wash out.” Here are some additional benefits of VIZZIA‘s RTLS-based hand-hygiene system:

Dramatically reduce incidence of HCAI

Create safer environment for patients and staffers alike

Alert staffers to potential cross-contamination events

Identify education opportunities for specific groups or individuals

Empower caregivers to be compliant by sending a soft audible alert to staff tags when they forget to wash

Easy-to-configure rules engine is highly customizable

Software generates wide range of reports based on various criteria/filters

How RTLS Works for Hand Hygiene Compliance

VIZZIA offers a variety of technology options, each of which provides unique benefits for different facilities’ needs. For hand-hygiene compliance, however, VIZZIA only recommends one solution: a combination active RFID/IR system from our partner CenTrak. It’s the only solution on the market that can accurately monitor hand-hygiene compliance while also proactively reminding caregivers to be compliant.

Each patient room and hallway is outfitted with an Infrared “monitor,” which mounts on the ceiling. Each device is assigned a location code.

A combination IR/motion-detecting device is mounted on every soap or gel dispenser throughout the hospital. In the system, it is assigned to the monitor in the same room.

Every clinician in the hospital (and any other staff members required) is assigned a unique staff identification badge with both IR and RF capabilities.

When a clinician enters a room, he or she must perform hand hygiene within a given period of time (based on hospital-specific rules). (A) When a clinician performs hand hygiene, the motion detector on the hand-washing device senses motion and sends out a burst of IR light containing time and location information (B), both of which are received by the clinician’s tag.

(C) The nearest staff tag within several feet reads the information, converts it to radio-frequency and transmits it along with the staffer’s unique identification code to the network.

If the clinician has not performed hand hygiene within the allotted time, the system sends out a soft multi-beep alarm to the staffer’s badge, alerting him or her to wash.

(D) The network reports every compliant and non-compliant event to the server, where data is stored (E) before being transferred over the Internet to VIZZIA’s advanced mapping and analytics software, (F) where infection control specialists, nurse managers and other staffers can access the information.

Users can search for specific events, run detailed reports and analyze compliance data based on a number of criteria.

Optimize Your ROI

Beyond providing the hardware and software infrastructure through which a hospital’s hand-hygiene compliance system operates, VIZZIA also offers advanced analytics, consulting, deployments, change management and business process outsourcing. Why? Because at VIZZIA we know that technology alone can’t solve problems. It’s our goal to empower our customers with the tools they need to make the most out of their RTLS investment. Learn more about “The VIZZIA Difference” in the Consulting Services section.